Anti-Defamation League Press Release on Farrakhan

March 2, 2011 7:24:50 PM PST

March 2, 2011 (PRESS RELEASE) --

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) said today that anti-Semitism was "front and center" at the Nation of Islam's annual meeting near Chicago, and that the organization and its longtime leader, Louis Farrakhan, continue to engage in a targeted campaign against Jews.

Minister Farrakhan's February 27 keynote address featured a range of conspiratorial messages about Jews and Zionists, including accusing Jews and Israel of trying to push the U.S. into a war with Iran, blaming Jews for killing Jesus, and claiming that Jews were responsible for Black suffering through history.

The NOI convention's opening plenary session, titled "The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews," sought to demonstrate disproportionate Jewish involvement in the slave trade and to blame Jews for Black suffering ever since. Speakers accused Jews of controlling the media and called for the NOI's anti-Semitic books to be taught in schools nationwide.

"Anti-Semitism has suffused the Nation of Islam's message, and Farrakhan is the standard bearer and bigot in chief," said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director. "For the past two years he has put anti-Semitism front and center on the agenda, so that it is now a drumbeat heard across the organization. And perhaps what's more disturbing is that despite his anti-Semitic rants, he has not been made a pariah in his own community. What does it take for him to stop being a pied piper of hatred?"

Farrakhan, who has a long history of anti-Semitic and racist statements, addressed the Nation of Islam's 2011 Saviours' Day convention at the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Illinois. Included among his conspiratorial messages was the allegation that "Zionists" are goading the United States into "a military offensive against Libya," whose leader, Muammar Qaddafi, he praised as "my brother" and "my friend."

"At a time when Qaddafi is engaged in a brutal and violent crackdown against his own people, it is shocking to hear Farrakhan praising him," said Mr. Foxman. "Qaddafi's actions against his own people are indefensible, and yet Farrakhan defends him."

Additional excerpts from Farrakhan's Saviours' Day address:

"President Obama, if you allow the Zionists to push you, to mount a military offensive against Qaddafi and you go in and kill him and his sons as you did with Saddam Hussein and his sons, I'm warning you this is a Libyan problem, let the Libyans solve their problem among themselves."

Farrakhan accused American Zionists and Israel of trying to push the U.S. into a war with Iran and charged that, "Zionists dominate the government of the United States of America and her banking system."

"Some of you think that I'm just somebody who's got something out for the Jewish people. You're stupid. Do you think I would waste my time if I did not think it was important for you to know Satan? My job is to pull the cover off of Satan so that he will never deceive you and the people of the world again."